1. Field of the Description
The present description relates, in general, to passenger boats such as round rafts and their use in water-based rides (e.g. “raft rides”) in amusement parks, theme parks, and water parks, and, more particularly, to a passenger boat with a passenger-controllable or positionable shield or bather to selectively block water from entering the boat or spraying its passengers.
2. Relevant Background
In amusement parks, water parks, resorts, and many other settings, entertainment is provided that involves passengers riding on boats in still and moving water. For example, resorts may provide passenger boats in the form of rafts, kayaks, and paddleboats to their guests to allow them to play in the water. In amusement parks, many rides have been designed and implemented that provide a river rafting experience that may simulate whitewater rafting. Passengers typically enter a boat such as a round raft in a station, and water flowing in a channel moves the passenger boats down the channel and may even cause the boat to flow over rapids and down steep chutes.
Excitement and thrill is added to this water entertainment including water rides by introducing the risk that passengers may get soaked with water or at least be sprayed. For example, the raft filled with passengers may float down a winding river and a waterfall may drop water into a portion of the boat. Passengers may also get splashed or wet during the normal operation of the boat floating through turbulent water or at the bottom of ramps. In other cases, devices may be positioned on differing sides of the channel (e.g., a “lazy river”) that randomly or intermittently spray jets of water out into the channel where a boat may be traveling. In still another example, spectators along a body of water may be provided large squirt guns or water cannons that they can operate to shoot water out into the body of water at people in nearby boats to try to soak their “friends.”
In such water-based entertainment (generally, called “water rides” herein), the passengers typically have little or no control over whether or not they get wet. In the waterfall example, the movement of the boat or raft is typically random, and the passenger has to rely on luck or chance to see whether their seat or part of the boat or raft is the one that passes under the waterfall. There are presently only very limited opportunities for passenger interactivity in water rides, and such opportunities typically have been limited to providing the passengers (or spectators) with squirt guns that they can operate to squirt passengers in other boats.